How Often Should You Wash Your Car?

I have to admit something and get this weight off of my chest: I am terrible at keeping my car clean. My passenger seat is usually full of mail, things I need to return to the store, or objects that have fallen out of my huge purse. Since I have bought my new car, Jerome, I have been doing much better at keeping things on the inside organized. That just leaves the outside of this shiny new car. My old car made it thorough a car wash about twice in the nine or so years that I owned it, and I know that is a disgraceful number. The rust on the bottom of my car let everyone know how bad I was.

So, how often should I be washing my new car? When researching the topic online, I found that pretty much everyone is in agreement that it is most important to wash your car any time it is visibly dirty. This is especially true if there is salt from the roads accumulating on your car’s body, there is visible bird poop, or you park under a tree that’s dropping sap on the vehicle. That seems simple enough; I’ll just wash it when it’s dirty.

Not so fast! There are many invisible hazards lying in wait for your car. Thanks to humans and our emissions, the rain that falls from the sky is at least slightly acidic. The experts at Consumer Reports actually recommend rinsing a car off after a period of intense rain, especially if the car is parked outside. The magazine recommends washing a car every week to ensure that anything resting on the car (and damaging the paint) is removed as soon as possible. The car care gurus at Meineke give a recommendation of every two weeks, with more washing for visible dirt or extra exposure.

A Dayton native, Rebecca got her start blogging at the curiously named Harlac’s Tongue while studying abroad in the UK. She loves tooling around town with her Ford Focus named Jerome to the song they’re playing on the radio. On any given weekend, you can find her with her camera at area festivals, concerts, and car shows, shopping at flea markets, or taking an adventure on the open road. See more articles by Rebecca.